Herald of Steel

The negotiations until now were hardly proceeding the way Chief Metztil had expected them to.

According to how he had dealt with the Margraves the last time, they should have been on their way back to the camp by now- having all that was promised to them and even more.

However, reality proved far too different much of their distress.

The one to greet them was not the soft, putty like old man Lord Janus, who had appeared ready to give away at a moment's notice, but this hard as nails young man called Alexander.

And now looking at the fair, handsome face, Chief Metztil suddenly began to feel irritated, especially as he found losing to someone who looked even younger than some of his sons.

Thus he decided there was little point beating around the bush and trying to act coy.

Placing the minimum level of trust in his entourage, he finally decided to get serious.

"Is that why you present us with that joke of a deal? Because you know we have no other choice?" The chief's eyes went a bit red as he pronounced in a hard, aggrieved tone, before suddenly flaring up with righteous indignation,

"*Bam* No! You want our island? You say the whole world wants our island? Our ancestor's land? Fine! Take it...

over our dead body! Because we will never be reduced to beggars by you outsiders!"

The message was clear, these natives would rather die and become extinct than take the pittance of land Alexander was offering.

And in hindsight, Alexander should have already expected it.

Because if these people could be reasoned with so easily, by only showing them the reality, then they could have never stayed in those swamps for so long.

Those rotting bogs and marches were hardly the ideal place to live, having no good place to farm, access to only stale stagnant, repugnant water, and most unpleasant of all, that ever present putrid smell of rooting wood and flesh.

So the fact that these people voluntarily endured these intense hardships really showed their mettle.

Most others would have long ago abandoned their identity long ago and chosen to submit to the Margraves' rule, thus assimilating themselves.

It took that intense reaction from the chief for Alexander to understand this.

Thus fearful of Metztil simply walking out feeling insulted, Alexander quickly placated the man and decided to hear what the other side thought acceptable.

"We were promised this entire area!" Metztil was ready to present his answer instantly, taking out a small papyrus scroll from inside his coat.

Unscrolling it revealed a crude hand drawn map, with a large red circle drawn around the top of it.

The man wanted all the area inside it.

"Impossible!" And without even taking a good look at it, Alexander let out his unequivocal rejection instantly, for he spotted the name 'Gaint City' just outside the circumference of the circle, almost touching it.

It meant that the tribes wanted everything from here to the north.

And to give you a context of the amount of geed in display here, Galiosos was roughly 800 km in length and 500 km in width.

This landmass about twice the size of the british isles was neatly divided horizontally between the Margraves, and the Strauss family, who had also fought with the natives under the Kaizer family's banner.

So each side controlled around 400 km of the island lengthwise.

But that did not mean each of the family controlled 200,000 sq kilometers each.

While the souther part that was controlled by the Strauss family was fully under their control, the northern part ruled by the Margraves was not.

The northernmost of the island, around 50 to 80 km in length depending on how you measured it since the swamp was not one straight line, was filled completely with impassable hills, bogs, swamps, and marshes, and inhabited by those fierce natives.

The Margraves had no control over that and after finding attacking through such terrain was basically impossible, simply sought to contain them using the northern barbarian wall.

Thus the total area Margraves had was only a bit over 160,000 sq kilometers.

And Gaint City was around 80 kilometers from that wall.

So you multiply that by 500 km, and the area demanded by these men came to a staggering 40,000 sq kilometers.

And if you are having trouble imagining just how big that is, well know that the Crimea peninsula that was annexed by Russia in 2014 is only 27,000 sq. kilometers.

So if Alexander really were to concede to such a lion's appetite, the Margraves would instantly lose a quarter of its land.

And much, much more if one considered that these lands belonged to him and Lady Miranda, while the land south of Caira now belonged to Miss Linda.

If such a thing were to happen, Alexander would rather pack up his bags and leave, cutting his losses.

"This is what was promised to us. We would not have bothered to come otherwise"

However, in spite of Alexander's vehement refusal, Metztil strongly insisted on his claim, pointing at the map with one of his large stubby fingers that was jeweled with a large red ruby ring.

"What, old man? Do you deny anything I said?" Then to further prove his point, Metztil turned to sneer at the present Lord Janus who was sitting right beside Alexander, asking him to validate his claim, "Did I not draw this circle right in front of you? Did you not agree to the terms?"

Feeling Cheif Metztil's pointed gaze towards him, the old man could only flush in embarrassment.

Indeed all that the chief was true, Lord Janus had made such a promise.

Problem was it was a promise that he was hardly qualified to do so. These lands were not his to give.

But at the time, he had pretended as such to convince them to agree to his request.

And now the birds had come to roost.

Even the thick skinned former steward found it hard to not feel a bit embarrassed over breaking his words.

He was sure this would remain a stain on his honor for the rest of his life.

"*Tsk*, all of you outsiders are the same." And seeing the man say neither yes or no, but play the role of a deaf and dump, Metztil cursed with the utmost disdain and disgust, his eyes dripping with scorn.

*Creak!* Then he pushed his chair back, seemingly ready to imminently storm off.

In his mind, the negations had already broken down.

Whatever happened next, whether they lived or died, he resigned himself to the will of the spirits.

While watching all this from the back, Alexander too felt a slight headache.

The validity of the map and the native's strong claim made Alexander feel incredulous as to how Lord Janus could have possibly made such a deal.

As a steward with decades of experience, as someone who had seen and gone through so much, it seemed impossible to Alexander that he would make such a foolish error.

Alexander hence logically thought,

'Either Lord Janus is really incompetent. Or much more likely, back then he was desperate. He must have bent whatever way they wanted and agreed to anything and everything just to try and get help for his lady. Heh, the old fart really sees her as his daughter. No wonder he reacted so negatively when Lady Miranda brushed him aside with little thought. He must have felt slighted like a father would.'

Taking an educated guess as to how the map came to be, Alexander then swiftly turned his attention to the chief who was about to leave.

He called out from behind his chair,

"Chief Metztil, wait! Perhaps there is a middle ground we can reach! Since you came such a long way, it would look too bad to leave empty handed."

"...." Hearing this, Metztil's butt that was floating just above the soft feathery cushion of the chair suddenly halted.

As much as he would hate to admit it, Alexander was right.

Rumors about the deal had already spread across not only his tribe but many others.

Now, not only his people, but every native islander was waiting with bated breath for him to come with back with the so called, 'vast swathes of land,' as the gossip went.

Metztil suspected all this was done by his rivals, trying to dig a pit for him.

And it also showed that he had a mole within his deepest circle.

Otherwise, the fact that he was dealing with an outsider should have been confidential to the highest degree. However not only did his meeting get leaked, but even the precise details of their discussion were revealed to their minute detail.

So it was little wonder he was suspicious of his entourage.

This also proved that Metztil's position with his tribe was hardly as robust as an outsider might presume. Read new chapters at m_v-l'e|-NovelBin.net

It was understanding that the chief pushed his butt down and turned to face Alexander, when he heard him say,

"It is not possible for us to give you so much land. We would simply die. But it is possible for us to share. We can agree to let you people live in those lands… with some sort of special arrangement."

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